LCC Air Arabia hopes to have its joint venture (JV) carriers in Armenia and Pakistan flying by mid-year and has now allocated aircraft to the two new airlines.

More than 5 million people traveled by air during the week-long spring festival between Jan. 31 and Feb. 6. 

Germany’s antitrust authority Bundeskartellamt has raised serious concerns over Lufthansa’s decision to terminate a long-standing special pro-rate agreement with leisure carrier Condor in a preliminary decision that will likely lead it to force continuation of the arrangement.

The Biden administration has made its distaste for airline consolidation well-known, but even its own Department of Justice will be hard-pressed to reject the recently proposed merger between Frontier Airlines and Spirit Airlines. 

The merger would create the largest ULCC in the Americas through a combined fleet that could inch close to 500 Airbus narrowbodies during the next five years.

Strain on regional airline networks caused in part by rising demand for pilots may lead to discussions on revisiting the 1,500-hr. rule, SkyWest President and CEO Chip Childs said.

Russia’s only operator of passenger Boeing 747s, Rossiya Airlines, will retire the type by the end of 2024. 

Wizz Air has fallen foul of a Danish pension fund on ESG grounds as AkademikerPension says it will sell its stake in the ULCC, which is accused of discouraging staff from joining unions.